Method of making heels.



E. E. WINKLEY.

METHOD OF MAKING HEELS. APPLICATION FILED APR-2.1915.

1 ,209,53 1. Pateiit-ed Dec. 19, 1910.

dkmrrsi wymmraarmi I Mmpraaaed f irgarewa'cxi.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

nnss'rus n. WINKLEY, or LYNN, massacnusn'r'rs.

mn'rnon or MAKING 11mins.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 19, 1916.

Application flied April 2, 1915. Serial No. 18,686.

' Toall whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ERASTUS E. WINKLEY,

a citizen of the United States, residing at Lynn, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Making Heels; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enables others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to the manufacture of heels such as are built up of layers or lifts and compressed under heavy pressure to compact the lifts and bring the heels substantially to their final form;

The invention will be described in con nection with its application to lifts made of leather, as leather embodies the characteristics which control the utility of the invention to a more marked :degree than do leather heels.

other materials which are used for lifts in building heels. It should he distinctly understood, however, that the utility of the invention is not confined tothe making of The leather of which heelflifts are formed waries greatly in thickness, and in density,

and if a given number of lifts, selected at random, be assembled and. compressed under a definite pressure the height of the resulting heel blank will be indeterminate.

In making a quantity of shoes of'the same size and style it is desirable that the heel blanks prepared for application thereto be uniform in height for appearance, and particularly for comfort tothe wearer. Here tofore the heel-lifts have been graded accompressing dies through a positive train of mechanism which imparts a definite movement to said dies and reduces all heel-blanks delivered fromthe machine for any particular setting of the dies, to the same height,

thus gaining the desired result just adverted to. But thoseskillcd in the art have long recognized a serious disadvantage accompanying this method of making'heel blanks.

. Obviously, because of the original variation in density of the lifts and the consequent varying pressure exerted on the heel bodies by the compressing machine it has been imposible to compress all heel blanks to a uniform density. Uniformity in density is highlydesirable for all heel blanks of the same size or style because then the expansion of the material, which occurs after the blanks are ejected from the compressing dies, will be uniform and the uniformity in height determined by the heel compressing operation will be maintained. Under the old method, when the expanded heel blanks are attached to the two shoes of a pair, it frequently happens, due to the heel measuring and pressure applying operations employed in heel attaching machines, that uni formity in height is lacking. A further advantage secured by uniform density in two heels of a single pair resides in the resultant uniform wear of the heels.

To, produce the desired results the cha racteristics of leather must be considered. As to anytwo heel lifts of the same original thickness, the thickness of the lifts after they have been subjecttd to a uniform pressure will not be the same unless the lifts were originally of the same density, while conversely, two heel-lifts originally of different thicknesses may be of the same thickness after being subjected to uniform pres sure, if the originally thinner lift were of denser material than the other, so as to be less reduced in thickness by the compressing operation. It will be apparent, accordingly, that in selecting lifts to produce a compressed heel of a given height and density these lifts should be selected or graded not in accordance with their original thickness, but rather in accordance with the thickness which they will have after corn ression.

leather, and if, with be found to have may be expected that they will havethe'ssme mass, if of the same size, per unit of area, whatever their size,- convenience, the thickness to which any of a lot varying as and' density, is reduced-when subjected to the'pressure just referred to will be 'hereiin after termed the the lift.

It has been discovered by the present inventor that the relation ust described is true. If two heel-lifts of the same sir. and

the same conditlon as to moisture, welg the same before compression, no matter how they may differ in thickness and in the original density of the material, it will be found that they have the same mass characteristic.

The object of the present invention is to improve the manufacture of shoe heels. in such a manner as to produce, in a convenient and reliable manner, heels of substantially uniform density and conforming closely to the predetermined standard height, while utilizing heel-lifts cut from material of varying density and thickness. This is accomplished by grading the heel-lifts in accordance with the foregoing principles, and building each heel of a definite number 0 lifts having each a definite massiper unit of area, rather than a definite orig nal thickness, the heels being then compressed to bring the lifts all to substantially the same density and thus reduce the heels all to the same thickness or height.

The novel step of this grading of the heel lifts according to the characteristics described, may be performed in various manners, but the manner which has been found most convenient and reliable, and .which lends itself best to performance by automatic machinery, is that which is described as the function of a machine disclosed in an application for Letters Patent of the United States, filed by the present inventor April (3, 1912, Ser. No. 689,030, and renewed May 18, 19M), Serial No. 98,437. in that machine each heel-lift is subjected to a uniform pressure which may be Substantially equal to that involved in the heel compressing operation, this pressure being sullicicut to crunlcnse all the lifts to substantially the same density, and the thickness of the material as so compressed, or as heretofore termed, its mass characteristic, is measured, and the lifts sorted accordingly. lvccause of variations in thickness in indi idual lifts and also in order that the 1. ?till. pressure to which tin machine must subject each lift may not luv inconveniently great. the pressure is applied to only a small definite part of the area of n-occss i. a. the

this same'density, they' the same thickness, it-

"assu ned, for practical or the. same mass.

lift,. to both thickness heel-hits both according to ori mass char-acteristic of,

and Q, which are .plinciplcs ot thelift preferably its central portion, and it has been found .that it may safely be' purposes, that the party So measured afi'ordsan averageor aproximate indication of the mass characteristic of the lift as a whole.

The accompanying drawings illustrate, diagrammatically, the results of grading inal thickness. andacco'rding to the met 0d of the present nvention, and of combining the lifts so graded to produce heels. They also illus tratethe preferred manner of carrying out the characteristic step of the present invention whereby-the different grades of heellifts. are obtained.

Figures 1 and 2 show heel-lifts of different'thickncsses, but equal masses, under the influenceof the instrumcntalities by which they are subjected to a uniform pressure in the performance of the grading operation. Figs. Etc 10, inclusive, representations of heels, before and after compression, in which hccl lifts of varying thicknesses and densities have been employed.

Figs. 1 and 2 show diagrammatically the referred manner of performing that step in the improved method of manufacturing heels which has been described as the grading of the heel-lifts in accordance with their individual mass characteristics, or approximately in accordance with their mass per unit of area. In each of these two figures the means for subjecting a limited portion of the heel-lift to the predetermined pressure are illustrated as pressure-members I forced against opposite sides of the material, thus condensing the material and reducing its thickness in that portion which is immediately between the operating surfaces of the pressure-members. In Fig. l the heel-lift a: is illustrated as a comparatively thick lift of soft or spongy leather, while in Fig. 2 another heellift z is shown, 'hich is originally thinner than the lift .r,

the purpose of illustration it willbe assumed that the ditl'crencc in the original density of the material of the two lifts is such that the pressure to which they are subjected brings them to the same-thickness in the compressed portions, notwithstanding the greater original thickness ofthe liftin, and

these two lifts m and a are thus found to have. the same mass characteristic or .to be of the same grade in accordance'with the this invention, and may be used intvrchaugcahly in the production of a heel of a given thickness or height.

Fig-z 3 shows a heel A made up of lifts such as the lift 0: of Fig,

prcssion of the heel. Fig. -t shows the same are diagranunatic 1-.

but of more dense n'iaterial. For- 1, prior to the comheel after compression, the thickness of each lift and the total thickness of the heel hav- 'ing been reduced so that each lift has only original density of the heel lifts and their.

greater resistance to compression, so that although the lifts as shown in Fig-6 have been brought to the same density as the lifts .r in Fig. 4, the compressed heel B is of greater tl'iiekness than the compressed heel A. It will be obvious that if the heel B had, by the compressing operation, been reduced to the same thickness as the heel A then its density per unit of area would have been considerably greater than that of the heel A. A comparison between Figs. 3 and 4, and 5 and 6, illustrates in an exaggerated manner the inaccuracies resulting from the se lection of heel-lifts solely in accordance with their original thickness to produce heels of the same density and height.

Figs. 7 and 8, com ared with Figs. 9 and 10, illustrate the uni orm results which may be secured by the present method. In these figures, for the sake of comparison, the heel C, shown in Figs. 7 and 8, is built up of lifts such as the lift m of Figs. 1 and 3 so that the heel C when compressed will be identical with the heel A. The heel Dshown in Figs. 9 and 10, however, is built up of lifts like the lift a of Fig.2. Accordingly, the heels C and D before they have been compressed are of different thicknesses and.

densities, but after they have been compressed to the same thickness, as shown in Figs. 8 and 10, they are also of the same density, whereas, in the old method shown in Figs. 3, 4. 5 and (l, as just described, the heels are originally of the samathickness but of different densities, and after compression they are. of the same density and different thickness or the same thickness and different densities according to Whether a uniform or a positive pressure is employed for the compressing operation. This application is a division of the. said applicatlon, Serial No. 981-217.

It will he understood that the term heellift, wherever used inthe following claims is intended to designate a blank or pieceof leather, of any for n, which may be usedto constitute a layer of a heel or heel-block,

whether or not such blank or piece has been heel.

hat is claimed is:-

, l. The method of making shoe-heels which consists in building a heel-body of a plurality of heel lifts so srivcted as to provide a definite mass and mpressing said body to a substantially uniform density.

The method of ihaking shoe-heels which consists in grading heel-lifts in accordance with their thickness when sub- )QCtQtl to a definite pressure per unit of area, building heel-bodies of definite members and grades of such heel lifts, and compressing said bodies throughout under substantially the said pressure per unitof area.

3. The method of making shoe-heels which consists in building a heel-body of a plurality otlifts selected to produce a definitctotal mass but an indefinite total thickness, and compressing said body to a definite thickness.

4. The method of making shoe-heels which consists in grading heel-lifts in substantial accordance with their mass per unit of area, building heel-bodies of definite numbers and grades of such heel-lifts, and subjecting said bodies to a uniform compressing operation.

5. That step in the manufacture of shoeheels which consists in grading heel-lifts heterogeneous as to both thickness and density substantially in accordance with their mass per unit of area. 6. That step in the manufacture of shoeheels which consists in grading heel-lifts heterogeneous as to both thickness and density in accordance with the product of the original thickness and density of each lift. 7. That step in the manufacture of shoeheels which consists in grading heel-lifts heterogeneous as to both thickness and density in accordance with their. thickness when subjected to a definite pressure per unit of area.

8. The method of grading lifts for shoeheels which consists in subjecting a plurality of'heel-lifts severally to a definite pressure over a limited part of the area of each lift, and sorting the lifts according to the thicknesses of their said parts when so compressed.

. 9. The method of making shoe heels, which includes the steps of determining the mass characteristic of each individual heellift of a lot which are heterogeneous as to both thickness and density, sortin such lifts into different grades in 'acco'r ance with- 10. The methodbf making shoe-heels of uniform height and density from a lot of acter istics, forging heel-bodies by-nssemheel-lifts which are heterqgeneolis with reblir ig -togeigh er definite, equal numbers of spectto these two characteristics, which inlifts sjajd grades, and subjecting said lu eludes the steps of .determin ing the ma. 5 heel-bodies t9 a 'uniform compressing opera- 5 ;l,1 :u'acteristic of each individual heel-1i is, tion;

sorting said lifts into .vdifi alfqnt gradesin accordance with their,detel minedjnass.char- EBASTUS WINKLEY 

